174: Always-On Apple Watch
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Welcome to Under the Radar, a show about independent iOS app
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development.
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I'm Marco Arment.
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And I'm David Smith.
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Under the Radar is never longer than 30 minutes,
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so let's get started.
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So before we get into our main topic for this week, which
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I think is a pretty good one, just
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to keep you on the edge of your seat for this,
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I wanted to mention that September is Childhood Cancer
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Awareness Month.
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And Under the Radar, like all the Real AFM shows,
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are coming together this month to show our support for this
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and to try and raise money for St. Jude's Research Hospital.
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St. Jude's Research Hospital is kind of an amazing organization
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that takes care of kids who have cancer at no cost to them
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or their families, that is doing research and development
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to try and stop cancer from killing any children, which
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is just a tremendous and wonderful direction that they're
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And their treatments have been dramatically successful.
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They've been able to raise the survival rate for some children's
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cancers from 20% to 80% since they opened 50 years ago.
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And they're not going to stop until they
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can get that number all the way up to 100.
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And so this is a cause that Real AFM and all of its shows
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and its hosts are supporting this month.
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And we're just encouraging listeners to support it.
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And if you have the means and the interest and the ability,
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we would love for you to go to stjude.org/relay
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and donate to them and support them in their work
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and just to help kids get the care they
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need at no cost to them.
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So our actual topic that we're going to dive into now
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is talking a little bit about the new devices
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that we actually got announced, I guess, on September 10th
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And this was the iPhone--
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if I can get the names right--
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the iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro, the iPhone 11 Max.
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And then on the Apple Watch--
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You need more words because it's maximum words.
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It's maximum words.
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So we got that on the iPhone.
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And then on the Apple Watch, we got the Series 5 Apple Watch,
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which I think I'm going to start on the Apple Watch
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because I kind of love that we--
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so a couple of shows back, we spent a whole episode
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talking about essentially spending
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Dan Riccio's hardware budget.
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We were sort of both a little bit of, I guess,
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guessing as well as predicting.
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And there's a little bit of wishful thinking.
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We were thinking about what might
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keep coming down the road for us, what this Apple Watch could
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be, and kind of found it in a positive way
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that I don't think either of us would have guessed.
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We kind of got one of the big things we talked about,
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which is an Always On Display, which is something that I think
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has been a glaring kind of limitation of the past
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generations of Apple Watch.
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And I think it's very exciting in terms
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of what it means for the device and the use cases for it.
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And some-- I'll get into a bit of third party opportunities
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I think it's really exciting that that's
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where they went to spend their budget this year, which
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is very cool.
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And kind of an amusing side note to that
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is because that's where they sort of went
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to spend their energy and their new effort this year,
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sleep tracking is still nowhere to be seen.
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Sleep++ is still in the clear on the Sherlocking front.
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And that continues.
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It's like the watch for that continues for another who
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knows how long.
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Yeah, I mean, this is not, I think, what anybody expected.
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I mean, I think all of us really thought sleep tracking
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was very likely to happen.
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And I don't think anybody thought an Always On screen was
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in the cards for this year or any time soon.
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It seemed like it just required too much power
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compared to what we already had and what capabilities
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were and everything.
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It seemed like it was too far off.
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And so that's why I believe when we mentioned it,
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we even said as much, like, yeah, this probably
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won't happen.
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So it's great news on a number of fronts.
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And to me, I mean, neither of us have had a chance
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to actually see or use these yet because they aren't actually
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in customers' hands yet.
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But I'm going to go out on a limb here
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and suggest that this is going to dramatically change what
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it's like to own an Apple Watch.
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That seems like a very safe limb to be on.
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Yeah, like, yeah, right?
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I'm going to go out on, like, a bridge.
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Because so much of the Apple Watch
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has been defined by its incredibly tight power budget
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and its need to conserve power at all costs.
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And this thing that you just kind of occasionally
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get a few seconds of, and then it has to go away.
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Because it can't possibly afford to show you
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more than a few seconds worth of data very often.
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And there's this constant annoyance
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as an Apple Watch wearer of you have
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to glance at it to see something on it,
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like the time or something it's tracking,
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and the screen doesn't turn on.
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And you have to do that exaggerated arm motion.
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This has been, like, the constant annoyance
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of wearing an Apple Watch since they came out.
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And so for the always on screen, I'm
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sure it's not going to be perfect.
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I'm sure there's going to be limitations.
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It's not going to have, like, animations and lots of fast
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updating data and everything.
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But to be able to just glance at it
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and to have it always be showing you at least the time
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and some kind of complication data there,
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even if it isn't live animated the whole time,
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that is a dramatic change for the better of what it's
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like to wear an Apple Watch.
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And so it's-- and that closes one of the biggest gaps
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between not only the Apple Watch and some other, like,
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smart watches that are on the market,
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but also it closes one of the biggest gaps
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between the Apple Watch and regular watches.
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Because that's one of the reasons I like regular watches
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so much is they are always showing me the time.
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I never have to do a weird arm motion to see it.
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I just look, and it's always there.
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For the Apple Watch to have that, too, is, I think,
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And it's going to dramatically improve what it's
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like to wear an Apple Watch.
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Yeah, and I think it changes the--
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Yeah, it's just-- what I think is most interesting
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is that it changes what the device is in terms of the way
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that it is, like--
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the way it manifests itself in public, I guess, too.
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I think about how the Apple Watch previously
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was something that would--
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like, it was still very much like your phone in the sense
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that it was only live and active when you were working on it,
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when you were looking at it, when you were interacting
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It wasn't a device that was ever externally
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visible to the world in the sense that, you know,
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it's like, other than it occasionally would accidentally
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come on, generally, it was only you that would see this--
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the watch screen.
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I think it is going to be interesting, though, to see
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when-- like, Always On is amazing and great for so
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many reasons.
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And I think, honestly, in a positive sense,
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it is now like the display of the Apple Watch,
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the display of which watch face you choose,
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what complications you put on there, what data is being shown
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The styling and the design of those now
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is something that is on display, which is kind of cool,
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but I think will be an adjustment period, certainly,
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and I think I saw in Rene Ritchie's--
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he had a review of the Series 5 Apple Watch
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that he put up today.
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And I think he talked about this that I thought
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was a really interesting point, is
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it now is part-- like, previously, the case design
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and the strap were the two parts of the fashion of the Apple
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That's how you sort of dealt with the fashion, the way
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that it appears to the world.
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Now, the watch face you choose is just
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as much a part of that.
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And in the same way that if you were to buy a traditional Apple
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sorry, if you buy a traditional watch,
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the color of the face is an important part of that.
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It isn't just the color of the case and the strap.
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It's like, what does the actual face look like?
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What kind of hands does it have?
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Does it have things on it?
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That is now something that is part
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of the visual design and the aesthetic of the device.
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And I think that is very interesting,
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and I think is going to be a huge difference in terms
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of how people interact with the device, in addition to just,
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it's really cool, and it gets rid of these annoying situations
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where there's so many that come to mind.
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I'm on the train holding on to one of those little,
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I don't know, little pole on the train
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to keep you from falling over and trying
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to see what time it is or whatever.
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And you can't because you have to let go to turn your wrist
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or you're trying to do it in a way that doesn't
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elbow the person next to you.
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That's great.
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You don't have to do that.
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Or you're working out.
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There's many situations where you have the ability
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to now just see the display while you're working out,
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while you're holding a weird position,
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while you're doing something.
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Or even just you never will have to think about how
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to activate your screen.
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Because even I've had it when I'm not doing something
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like awkwardly holding a plank or doing something
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where I can't turn my wrist, sometimes I'm out for a run
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and I'll raise my wrist and it doesn't quite catch it,
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because it's a much more dynamic situation.
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There's a lot of movement going on in that situation,
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and sometimes the algorithm that's
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using it to catch the turn doesn't catch.
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And if that's the case, then it's annoying.
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And then I'm stopping my flow of what
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I'm thinking about when I'm running.
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And I have to look at this, do it again, or tap the screen,
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or try and do something like that.
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And so there's so many cool things
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that are coming out of it as a result.
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And I'm very thankful to Dan Ritchie,
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for that's how he chose to spend his budget this year.
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Obviously, he heard our show two weeks ago.
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I think we can claim credit for this.
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Any time you talk about the thing before it happens,
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that's because you did it, right?
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So yes, clearly this is how it happened.
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But I think it's very interesting.
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And I look forward to Apple expanding the capability
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for third parties with this.
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Obviously, for years you've talked about third party
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watch faces would be a great thing.
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But even just as it is, I believe right now,
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third party apps don't have quite the same always
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on capabilities as the built in workout app, for example.
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But I'm sure that's something that will come down the road.
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It's like, I doubt Apple is unaware that that
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would be awesome.
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And so I'm sure it'll come down at some point down the road,
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even if not right out the gate.
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Yeah, because for me, both as a user and as a developer
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especially, so much about the Apple Watch's frustrations
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as a software platform are that you're not really allowed
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to update your app ever in the background very often
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or update complications very much.
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There's so many limitations in place for throttling
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or limiting how much your app is actually allowed
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to update itself or update what's shown on screen.
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And to have any sign of those being lifted,
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first of all, what this does is it makes complications
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a heck of a lot more useful than they were before.
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- Sure, because in the same way that the Apple Watch
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was always a little bit mediocre at telling time
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for this reason.
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That like, 'cause I don't think there has been a single day
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that I have worn the Apple Watch where there wasn't
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at least once where I tried to get the screen to turn on
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in some way and it didn't.
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Like that has happened to me at least once a day.
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Every single day I've worn the Apple Watch.
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And so, and I have something that's common.
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Like as you were saying, awkward positions or if you're like,
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mine was simple things like if you're carrying something
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in your hand and you wanna see what time it is
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as you're carrying something, you can't move your hand
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that much 'cause it's carrying something.
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And so you'd like, you know, you'd like try to tell it
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a little bit or you'd like tap your nose against the Apple.
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- Ah, the nose tap.
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- They're like, it's just like all sorts of things
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you would need to try to do to try to see what time it was
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or check something on the face.
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And so like, this just, not only does this improve
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time telling, but this also dramatically improves
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anything else you would be looking at the watch screen
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to see, which for many of us is gonna be data
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from complications.
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And so that makes complications a heck of a lot more useful
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than they were before.
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Unfortunately, the APIs are still very limited.
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What developers are able and allowed to do on the watch
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is still extremely limited, especially in the realm
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of complications.
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And so I really hope that over time, as this hardware,
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you know, trickles down the line and gets more
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of the installed base and as it gets even better
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in the future and we hopefully have even more
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of Dan Ritchie's power budget to spend,
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I really hope that we see a similar advancement
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in what the APIs allow the apps to do in the first place.
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- Yeah, I think that's true.
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And I mean, I will say though, I think the complication
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APIs can be sort of turned and twisted in odd ways
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to make them more capable than they sort of
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superficially appear.
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This is just coming from like, there's all these,
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like the things they deal with, like a lot of the,
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sort of the complication system was originally built
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with time travel as one of the like core features
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that Apple thought would be cool that turned out not--
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- Yeah, that terrible feature where you like,
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you turn the digital crown to travel forward or backward
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in time on your watch face.
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- Yeah, and so like, one of the things that as a result
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of that is they had to make a complication system
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where you could like move forward and back in time,
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which most people turn that off anymore,
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but we still have that feature.
00:13:42
◼
►
And so like, you can still do some cool things now
00:13:44
◼
►
where you can set a complications to change an update
00:13:48
◼
►
at times in the future, even if you aren't woken up
00:13:51
◼
►
for background refresh, which depending on the context
00:13:54
◼
►
is like useful or unuseful.
00:13:55
◼
►
You know, obviously this is not a way to show live
00:13:58
◼
►
and active data, but there are things that you can show
00:14:01
◼
►
And I think this is the thing that I'm looking at it
00:14:03
◼
►
as I like see that this is the Apple watch
00:14:06
◼
►
and I cannot wait till Friday when I get my hands on one
00:14:09
◼
►
is there has to be more opportunities for developers now.
00:14:14
◼
►
Like it's just one of these things that I see this
00:14:16
◼
►
in this new device and like, I don't know how I'm gonna
00:14:19
◼
►
do it and I don't know exactly what I'm gonna do yet,
00:14:21
◼
►
but I am just like, absolutely confident there has to be
00:14:24
◼
►
some new and cool things that the watch is gonna be able
00:14:27
◼
►
to do and there's gotta be opportunities for us as a result.
00:14:31
◼
►
And it may involve as watch development often does,
00:14:34
◼
►
weird hacks and crazy workarounds.
00:14:37
◼
►
But you know, if you've, I've been working on the Apple
00:14:40
◼
►
watch for, you know, since the series zero watch
00:14:43
◼
►
with all the crazy hacks, like when the entire system
00:14:46
◼
►
was a crazy hack and a weird workaround.
00:14:49
◼
►
So I think that's just gonna be part of the course,
00:14:51
◼
►
but I think it is still very interesting to see
00:14:54
◼
►
where this goes and to see kind of like what we can do
00:14:58
◼
►
now that we have a watch that's always on.
00:14:59
◼
►
And a watch that people are going to, yeah, like it's,
00:15:02
◼
►
that becomes always visible and will sort of catch
00:15:05
◼
►
other people's eye and I think like honestly,
00:15:08
◼
►
one of the things that I think is interesting is how
00:15:10
◼
►
previously most people, when you see someone else
00:15:13
◼
►
wearing an Apple watch, it's always just a black square,
00:15:17
◼
►
which is entirely unappealing.
00:15:19
◼
►
Like, you're like, if you're just out walking
00:15:22
◼
►
and you see someone with an Apple watch, you never saw,
00:15:25
◼
►
like, it didn't look visually interesting.
00:15:27
◼
►
It was just, that person has a black screen
00:15:29
◼
►
strapped to their wrist.
00:15:31
◼
►
And so now that's not the case.
00:15:33
◼
►
Like when you see there's gonna be something there
00:15:35
◼
►
and that's kind of cool.
00:15:37
◼
►
Like to grab your eye, to show you something interesting,
00:15:40
◼
►
to, for some reason for it to be a bit more compelling.
00:15:43
◼
►
So anyway, I'm very excited.
00:15:45
◼
►
- Also, and you brushed past this a little while ago,
00:15:47
◼
►
but also I feel like that because you're now showing
00:15:50
◼
►
the world much more than the typical black square
00:15:52
◼
►
than you were showing them before,
00:15:54
◼
►
you might have different choices of even what watch face
00:15:56
◼
►
and what complications you put on there.
00:15:58
◼
►
Because now it is part of your look,
00:16:00
◼
►
it is part of your outfit in a way that it never was before.
00:16:04
◼
►
You know, people might see your screen for two seconds,
00:16:06
◼
►
but for the most part you would never know
00:16:07
◼
►
what watch face somebody used, you know,
00:16:08
◼
►
unless you were paying very close attention
00:16:10
◼
►
and they would move their arms in a funny way.
00:16:11
◼
►
But like for the most part you would never know.
00:16:13
◼
►
Now it's gonna be right there on display
00:16:15
◼
►
the way a regular watch is.
00:16:16
◼
►
So like you might choose maybe a visually simpler face
00:16:20
◼
►
or you might try better to color match the face
00:16:22
◼
►
to what you're wearing or to the strap or to your style.
00:16:26
◼
►
You know, and personally like I think one of the things
00:16:28
◼
►
I'm a little bit sad about with the Apple Watch right now
00:16:31
◼
►
is that there are very few watch faces I really like on it.
00:16:35
◼
►
Like before it was like here's this like,
00:16:37
◼
►
this utility mini phone that you could wear
00:16:39
◼
►
on your wrist and it would serve useful functions
00:16:42
◼
►
and the faces were fairly mediocre,
00:16:43
◼
►
each one had some kind of major flaw about it,
00:16:45
◼
►
but it wasn't that big of a deal
00:16:46
◼
►
'cause you weren't seeing the face that much really.
00:16:48
◼
►
Now you're seeing the face more and so not only does
00:16:51
◼
►
I think this make the chances of getting third party
00:16:54
◼
►
watch faces lower in a technical way in that Apple now
00:16:58
◼
►
has to worry a lot about the complexity of a watch face
00:17:01
◼
►
and how much white content it uses versus how much black
00:17:04
◼
►
and et cetera for power reasons.
00:17:05
◼
►
So I think that's going to dramatically reduce
00:17:09
◼
►
the chances that they ever allow third party faces.
00:17:11
◼
►
But also because the watch face is now so much more
00:17:15
◼
►
important to the look and the functionality
00:17:19
◼
►
and the individuality of the watch and the fashion of it,
00:17:22
◼
►
I think there's more need than ever
00:17:24
◼
►
for third party watch faces.
00:17:26
◼
►
You know, 'cause now like you're going to look around
00:17:29
◼
►
and see so many of the same things as you already did
00:17:31
◼
►
with the Apple Watch which is already a problem,
00:17:32
◼
►
but like I as an individual, I want so much more control
00:17:36
◼
►
over that watch face than what they're going to give me.
00:17:40
◼
►
And I think it's kind of a shame that we have this amazing
00:17:43
◼
►
hardware, finally we have Always On Screens,
00:17:46
◼
►
and we're still stuck with the same like very small
00:17:48
◼
►
handful of very like gimmicky and mostly not that useful
00:17:52
◼
►
watch faces and the few that are useful all have
00:17:54
◼
►
pretty substantial limitations and flaws.
00:17:56
◼
►
- Sure, and I will say I think, I don't think that,
00:18:00
◼
►
I suspect that Apple is very aware of this.
00:18:03
◼
►
Like obviously, and then I think one of two things
00:18:05
◼
►
in my hope would be that coming soon to watchOS.
00:18:07
◼
►
I would love to see, obviously some kind of third party
00:18:10
◼
►
opportunity there would be amazing, but if not,
00:18:12
◼
►
even just them to have a update to watchOS at some point,
00:18:17
◼
►
whether that's a point release to six or seven next June,
00:18:21
◼
►
where they have clearly like sent off a crack team
00:18:26
◼
►
of engineers and designers and just like overhauled
00:18:30
◼
►
the watch system and how customizable it is
00:18:33
◼
►
and how flexible it is from top to bottom.
00:18:35
◼
►
Like either scenario I would be happy with.
00:18:37
◼
►
Obviously, as a person who would love to make watch faces,
00:18:40
◼
►
I'd like the former, but even if I'm the last one,
00:18:42
◼
►
like there's so many faces where like the number of fonts
00:18:46
◼
►
that you can use to display the time is like is two or three.
00:18:51
◼
►
Like there is a world of font out there that like sometimes
00:18:56
◼
►
I wanna feel fancy and like San Francisco is a lot of things,
00:18:59
◼
►
but it doesn't feel fancy, like it's nice,
00:19:04
◼
►
but it's utilitarian.
00:19:05
◼
►
It feels good when I'm like trying to get stuff done,
00:19:09
◼
►
but it's not the kind of font that you kind of get
00:19:13
◼
►
that sense of this beautiful serif like old timey font
00:19:18
◼
►
to make you feel like your watch is old.
00:19:21
◼
►
Like those are the kinds of things that I would love
00:19:23
◼
►
to see them move into, so we'll see.
00:19:26
◼
►
- This episode of Under the Radar is brought to you
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by Zojo, Zojo, that's X-O-J-O.
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Thank you so much to Zojo for their support
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of this show and Relay FM.
00:20:36
◼
►
So I'm curious, as somebody, I think you are probably
00:20:41
◼
►
the person who has unquestionably built, by far,
00:20:45
◼
►
the most watch OS apps and almost certainly
00:20:49
◼
►
the most watch OS complications.
00:20:52
◼
►
And probably the most custom watch faces as well.
00:20:56
◼
►
Even though it's not even really the thing
00:20:57
◼
►
that we can actually do yet.
00:20:58
◼
►
So I'm curious, are you gonna look at the world
00:21:02
◼
►
of complications differently now?
00:21:06
◼
►
Are there different considerations of how you can do this?
00:21:09
◼
►
Are there any new markets that might open up now
00:21:12
◼
►
with an Always On screen or does it just kinda
00:21:13
◼
►
make everything else better that we already had?
00:21:16
◼
►
- I mean, I'm hopeful that it will open new opportunities.
00:21:19
◼
►
I think the thing that I am, like right now
00:21:22
◼
►
in my development, I am in the process of,
00:21:24
◼
►
I'm sort of updating and shipping all of my,
00:21:28
◼
►
you know, like my compatibility updates
00:21:30
◼
►
and trying to sort of clear the decks now that I know
00:21:32
◼
►
what the final hardware is.
00:21:33
◼
►
We have GMC2 of Xcode that I can build with.
00:21:37
◼
►
Like, things are good there.
00:21:39
◼
►
And then I think the next thing that I'm going
00:21:42
◼
►
to be working on, and something that I'm very excited
00:21:43
◼
►
to be working on, is making the existing complications
00:21:48
◼
►
in my current apps as well as potentially making
00:21:52
◼
►
some more apps that do things with complications,
00:21:54
◼
►
but making that very customizable, very flexible,
00:21:56
◼
►
and very like custom to the person.
00:22:01
◼
►
Because I think, and this was, you know,
00:22:03
◼
►
as you mentioned earlier, I had a couple month bender
00:22:07
◼
►
where I just kept making custom watch faces,
00:22:10
◼
►
which you can't actually do, but they're just apps
00:22:11
◼
►
that run, but you can have them, the Apple Watch
00:22:13
◼
►
always return to the, you know, a particular app
00:22:17
◼
►
rather than to a watch face.
00:22:18
◼
►
So you can kind of pretend that you have a custom watch face.
00:22:22
◼
►
And the thing that I found from that experience
00:22:23
◼
►
that was so like transformative for the watch for me,
00:22:26
◼
►
and this is, you know, not even always on,
00:22:28
◼
►
but was that it was delightful for the watch
00:22:31
◼
►
to be exactly what I wanted it to be right then.
00:22:35
◼
►
That it wasn't me choosing from a set,
00:22:40
◼
►
a limited set of options and opportunities
00:22:43
◼
►
for customization, that I could choose the color
00:22:45
◼
►
and that's about it for a lot of the built-in watch faces.
00:22:50
◼
►
I could do anything I wanted, obviously,
00:22:52
◼
►
because I'm building a custom watch face.
00:22:53
◼
►
And so I could make that.
00:22:54
◼
►
And what I would love to do, I think,
00:22:56
◼
►
and this is, I think, the opportunity for developers now,
00:22:59
◼
►
is complications will be a, you know,
00:23:04
◼
►
a persistent part of someone, of a user's day now.
00:23:07
◼
►
That is something that will be visible to them
00:23:09
◼
►
and to the world the entire day
00:23:12
◼
►
that they're wearing their Apple Watch.
00:23:13
◼
►
And so making that experience as custom
00:23:16
◼
►
and as fluid and as personal as possible,
00:23:20
◼
►
I think is something that I wanna do.
00:23:21
◼
►
And that can take a variety of forms.
00:23:24
◼
►
It's like in, you know, the simplest version
00:23:26
◼
►
is like in pedometer++, I'm just working on a way
00:23:30
◼
►
to choose exactly what gets displayed there,
00:23:34
◼
►
some visual choices in terms of how you want,
00:23:37
◼
►
you know, if you want it to be a graph,
00:23:39
◼
►
if you want it to have a dial,
00:23:41
◼
►
and some of these, depending on what the complication
00:23:44
◼
►
family supports, for some of them,
00:23:45
◼
►
I'm gonna even let you choose like different fonts
00:23:48
◼
►
or different sort of choices like that.
00:23:50
◼
►
I'm working on, and this is something
00:23:52
◼
►
that I've really enjoyed with some of the new
00:23:54
◼
►
light background Apple Watch faces that you can get now,
00:23:58
◼
►
with like especially the Meridian face,
00:23:59
◼
►
I think is my new favorite face.
00:24:00
◼
►
I like, I loved California over the summer,
00:24:02
◼
►
but Meridian is my new favorite
00:24:05
◼
►
'cause it has like just enough complications
00:24:07
◼
►
to be interesting and fun, but not so many
00:24:10
◼
►
that it's like crazy utility watch,
00:24:13
◼
►
and like it's really cool when you kind of blend
00:24:16
◼
►
the complication into the background,
00:24:18
◼
►
and it kind of makes it look almost like
00:24:20
◼
►
it's a physical object rather than a computer display.
00:24:24
◼
►
And so I think for me, I'm just gonna keep exploring
00:24:26
◼
►
and pushing this to see where we can go,
00:24:30
◼
►
because I think that's the opportunity
00:24:31
◼
►
is in customization, personalization.
00:24:34
◼
►
I mean, this goes all the way back to the very first
00:24:37
◼
►
Apple Watch introduction keynote,
00:24:40
◼
►
Steve, you know, like Johnny Ive in a white room
00:24:42
◼
►
was talking about making the most personal device ever,
00:24:45
◼
►
and like this is the next incarnation of that, I think,
00:24:49
◼
►
is making the way that the watch face looks
00:24:54
◼
►
as personal as possible.
00:24:55
◼
►
And maybe I'm just in the bargaining phase
00:24:57
◼
►
of third-party watch faces where like
00:24:59
◼
►
I don't know if it's ever gonna come,
00:25:01
◼
►
and so I'm just like making the best of what I can,
00:25:03
◼
►
using like kind of abusing the complication system,
00:25:06
◼
►
but I have a suspicion that a little bit of creativity
00:25:10
◼
►
and a little bit of like maybe banging my head
00:25:12
◼
►
against the wall, ultimately it's gonna be possible
00:25:15
◼
►
to make things that are kind of cool and interesting
00:25:17
◼
►
and compelling in the, you know, using complications
00:25:20
◼
►
that'll always be visible there,
00:25:21
◼
►
and that'll make the watch like be something
00:25:25
◼
►
that feels more personal to someone,
00:25:27
◼
►
that it makes them more connected,
00:25:28
◼
►
and if that's connecting them more personally
00:25:31
◼
►
to like fitness metrics, like that seems awesome.
00:25:35
◼
►
Like if they're being made aware of their activity rings
00:25:39
◼
►
or their step count or whatever kind of,
00:25:42
◼
►
you know, what their last workout is,
00:25:43
◼
►
if they have worked out that day,
00:25:45
◼
►
like there's lots of things that you can kind of imagine
00:25:47
◼
►
that it becomes this kind of more persistent
00:25:49
◼
►
kind of little nudge that sounds great too.
00:25:52
◼
►
So it can be like positive on the design side
00:25:54
◼
►
as well as not otherwise, so anyway.
00:25:55
◼
►
That's like my hope, I guess, is that it'll be,
00:25:59
◼
►
it's a fun opportunity there.
00:26:00
◼
►
I don't know if it'll, from a business perspective
00:26:02
◼
►
and for financially if there's a good market
00:26:03
◼
►
or if it'll be interesting in that respect.
00:26:06
◼
►
I suspect it'll probably be like most watchOS things,
00:26:08
◼
►
a little bit complicated, but we'll see.
00:26:12
◼
►
- Yeah, and I think ultimately,
00:26:15
◼
►
what I hope to see out of this is, you know,
00:26:19
◼
►
if we don't have full-blown third-party faces,
00:26:22
◼
►
I hope to see a ton more customization
00:26:26
◼
►
of the built-in faces than we have now.
00:26:28
◼
►
Lots more options about things like colors
00:26:32
◼
►
and whether the complications on each face
00:26:35
◼
►
are full color or monochrome,
00:26:37
◼
►
we have some that we can customize the dial colors on.
00:26:42
◼
►
Let us customize the hands colors also.
00:26:44
◼
►
You know, stuff like that.
00:26:45
◼
►
Like right now, I have little nitpicks
00:26:48
◼
►
about almost every single face on the app.
00:26:50
◼
►
I still don't like the way that the text curves around
00:26:53
◼
►
the old faces on the new watches.
00:26:55
◼
►
Like stuff like that, there's something wrong
00:26:57
◼
►
with all of them.
00:26:58
◼
►
And if Apple really is not gonna let us customize
00:27:00
◼
►
the faces fully from a third-party angle,
00:27:03
◼
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make more customization options that are built in.
00:27:06
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And secondly, I hope to see what you're gonna do
00:27:08
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and what people like you and what other
00:27:10
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other people are gonna do.
00:27:11
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And maybe Apple will do it too, although I doubt it.
00:27:13
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It's not their style, but let me customize
00:27:15
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how a complication shows its data,
00:27:18
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how it looks, what it says, what it doesn't say.
00:27:23
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There is so much room there.
00:27:25
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The complications that are built into the watch
00:27:27
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are largely so mediocre and kind of all over the map
00:27:31
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with both quality, design, and even like the style.
00:27:36
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Like there are certain ones, like the ones that go
00:27:38
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in the modern-ish round slots that are on
00:27:41
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the Infograph faces, why don't they all
00:27:44
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follow a consistent style?
00:27:45
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Like my current utility style face
00:27:49
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is the Infograph modular, and I have
00:27:53
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the two weather things that have like the little circle
00:27:55
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with the dot in the middle of it,
00:27:57
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and then I have the workout one,
00:27:58
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which doesn't have an outline,
00:27:59
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and it's a filled green circle with a person.
00:28:02
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It's like, why don't those match their styles?
00:28:05
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- Sure. - And why can't,
00:28:06
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and if they're not gonna do it all the time,
00:28:07
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why can't I change it?
00:28:08
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You know, like there's stuff like that that I just want,
00:28:12
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this is now so, it's so much more important now
00:28:15
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that we have the Always On screen,
00:28:16
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it's so much more important that you can find
00:28:19
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a design that you like, and we have,
00:28:22
◼
►
it seems like we have like fewer
00:28:23
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customization choices than ever.
00:28:25
◼
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- Yeah, and I think there, there's something
00:28:27
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that I'm starting to feel too with watch faces,
00:28:29
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is the difficulty is giving a watch face
00:28:33
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with like disparate complications a sense of harmony.
00:28:36
◼
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- Yes, it's very hard.
00:28:39
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- Like I feel like that's the thing that,
00:28:41
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►
like when I get it right, like when I'm sitting there
00:28:43
◼
►
and like juggling all the things,
00:28:44
◼
►
and like using the settings that I can,
00:28:46
◼
►
or like building stuff from scratch,
00:28:47
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►
like when it hits and it feels harmonious,
00:28:51
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►
like it's beautiful, like it is actually something
00:28:54
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that's like wow, I am delighted that this is on my wrist.
00:28:57
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►
I'm delighted that this is something
00:28:58
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that I get to look at every day.
00:29:01
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But to your point, when it's inharmonious,
00:29:04
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when things feel kind of a little different,
00:29:06
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►
or where it's just too one direction or another,
00:29:10
◼
►
like it can, like I personally don't love
00:29:12
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►
how vibrant the Infograph like, I don't know,
00:29:15
◼
►
like theme is, I wish that Infograph was a bit more low key.
00:29:19
◼
►
And Apple sort of did that, but like the way they did it
00:29:23
◼
►
is with the same old like two part image system,
00:29:25
◼
►
and like, yeah, like, I think, right, like,
00:29:28
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►
I want harmony, I want it to look good,
00:29:31
◼
►
and I think if Apple gets there,
00:29:33
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►
this is such a tremendous opportunity,
00:29:35
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►
and it's something that I think is gonna be so fun
00:29:37
◼
►
to work on for the next year.
00:29:39
◼
►
You know, until next summer when we start
00:29:41
◼
►
to spend Dan Ritchie's budget on whatever else
00:29:43
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►
we come up with.
00:29:45
◼
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- Yep, all right, thanks for listening everybody,
00:29:48
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and we'll talk to you next week.
00:29:50
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[BLANK_AUDIO]